Fishing Column: River herring population still depleted

Martin Armstrong

Published 12:05 am, Saturday, April 20, 2013

Recently the Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) announced that the prohibition on the taking of alewives and blueback herring from most inland and marine waters in Connecticut has been extended for another year.

This action was initially taken in April of 2002, and has been extended each year because there has been no improvement in population size during the past year.

The current action by DEEP Commissioner Daniel C. Esty extends the prohibition through March 31, 2014.

"Despite the conservation efforts taken by this agency and others over the past decade, the runs of river herring in Connecticut are still diminished," said DEEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Whalen. "The best available data from this past year indicates that the closure of these fisheries must therefore remain in place."

River herring is a term used collectively to refer to alewife and blueback herring. Both species are anadromous, which means they hatch in freshwater, migrate to the ocean to grow, then return to freshwater to spawn.

Historically, millions of river herring returned to Connecticut's rivers and streams each year.

More than 630,000 blueback herring were passed over the Holyoke Dam (Massachusetts) on the Connecticut River in 1985.

By 2006, only 21 passed the Holyoke Dam, the lowest number in the history of the Holyoke Fishlift. Last year that number was only 39.

While river herring are not typically consumed by humans, they are important food to many species of freshwater and marine game fish, as well as osprey, bald eagle, harbor seals, porpoise, egrets, kingfishers and river otter.

"We still are not certain about the exact cause of the decline in river herring runs. But there is no indication that there is a problem with Connecticut's rivers and streams," said Bill Hyatt, Chief of DEEP's Bureau of Natural Resources "The decline has been observed all along the east coast and the common factor is the ocean and estuaries. There was a renewed effort during 2012 to address this problem and new steps have been taken. We now wait to see if they help.

"One of our top priorities is to protect populations of wild, native fish," Hyatt continued. "We must work with other states and organizations to protect river herring, which cross jurisdictional boundaries. The prohibition is expected to stay in place until monitoring by the DEEP indicates that the population has recovered to the point where it could safely support some level of harvest."

During the past year, the New England Fisheries Management Council adopted new rules for commercial fishermen in the ocean to minimize river herring by-catch in the Atlantic herring fishery off the coast of northeastern states.

A ruling by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on whether or not to list both species of river herring under the federal Endangered Species Act was expected in 2012 but has now been delayed until 2013.

Alewives in these lakes may still be taken by angling and scoop net as established in state statute and regulation.

The DEEP continues its other efforts to enhance river herring stocks by transplanting adult herring from streams with healthy runs into streams where runs have been eliminated or greatly depleted, removing obsolete dams and building fishways that allow fish to migrate past remaining dams.

New fishways at the Hallville Dam on Poquetanuck Brook (Preston), the StanChem Dam on the Mattabesset River (Berlin), and the recent removal of the Rutan Dam on Anguilla Brook (Stonington) as of April 1 of this year will open over 57 additional miles of habitat for river herring in the state.

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Striped bass fishing is starting to heat up. Most of the fish in the area are schoolies and are too small to keep but at least they are biting.

Taking some time off from behind the counter at Sportsman's Den, Billy Ingraham caught a 26-inch linesider right there in Cos Cob Harbor. Billy caught the fish using a chartreuse and white bucktail lure.

Mike Noyes caught an "almost keeper" in the lower Mianus River. Mike was also using a bucktail lure.

An angler, who wished to remain anonymous, has been doing well fishing for stripers near Bruce Park. His largest fish last week measured 30-inches and was taken using bucktail. He also said he has been catching some fish off Tod's Point.

Capt. Jim Christianson caught a pair of stripers while fishing around the Norwalk Islands. His largest linesider measured 30 inches and was taken on a bucktail.

Rich Mahoney visited the Housatonic River during the week. He said there were so many anglers fishing he had to walk up river just to find a safe spot to fish from. He caught a pair of stripers using a Gibbs Danny Swimming Plug. His largest bass measured 25 inches.

Winter flounder fishing is slowly improving. Last week Nicole Redford, age 11, fished twice with her dad, Dave, and caught some flatties each trip. On the first outing Nicole and her dad caught four fishing including one that weighed 2.5 pounds. On the second outing, Nicole caught two more fish including one that weighed 2.6 pounds. All of the fish were taken using sandworms inside Norwalk Harbor.

Last week the Cub Scouts sponsored a fishing Jamboree at Deer Lake Camp in Killingworth. A couple of local scouts reeled in some nice fish. Bailey Getlik, 9, landed two rainbow trout and his twin brother, Tyler, caught a nice brown trout. They were using worms for bait.

Pete Miller and Danny Hernandez spent some time at the Kensico Reservoir last week. Pete caught a pair of brown trout and Danny caught one. All of the fish weighed around 5 pounds each and were taken using live minnows.

Martin Armstrong is a member of the Fisheries Advisory Council, a lifetime member in Trout Unlimited and part of the Outdoors Writers Association